Please tell me about your positive experiences with Self Contained Classrooms

[laurata]

I met my son's kindy teacher this week, and got a good feeling about her, but at the same time, I am suffering from some creeping anxiety about sending him to school all day, every day. He did well (I guess) in developmental preschool last year, in spite of my fears. He went four days a week, bus picked up at 8 and dropped off at noon. So I guess going full day isn't that much of a leap...

Anyway, he will be in a self contained special ed classroom. There are actually two classes, and two teachers, plus the aides, ST, OT, etc. One class is for younger kids, and the other older kids, but they will often do activities together. Recess is inclusive (gen ed and spec ed, but age segregated), but the rest of the time he'll be with other special ed classmates. I guess about 20 kids between the two classrooms, K-6.

If you have had a positive experience with this type of classroom, would you mind sharing? I feel fretful, but I don't know that he could succeed in a gen ed class, even with a one-on-one aide. He has high functioning autism, and is smart in his way, but we're still working on a lot of basic routine following and life skills. Plus his ability to transition is Not Good. Particularly when there is noise or lots of people.

Are these normal beginning of the year jitters? A kind of grief that my boy needs to be in a different kind of classroom?

[Aridel]

Self-contained rooms can be wonderful! My dd learned a lot of skills she really needs to by able to be a happy, successful kid. Since the room is smaller, with more adults, there is more time for individualized help, and less noise and transitions.

However, if your son is able to handle any inclusion time, I would start pushing for some. At my dd's school we were able to send her for specials (art, music, etc.) and then a portion of the day to her inclusion room. It was a typical class, but with fewer students since they knew some of the children who were also in the self-contained program would be coming in regularly. An aide from her room always went with my dd, but there were other children who didn't need an aide 100% of the time, or who needed 1:1 whenever in inclusion rather than 1 aide, and 2 - 3 kids. I strongly believe that you need to tailor education to the child, but the max time a child can be in inclusion should be done. For some kids that may be just recess, but for many it is more.

You know your son best, and I completely understand that he seems not ready for the large class. I just wanted to throw out the way it's done here, in case it helps at all. Could you have a progress meeting partway through the year to discuss how he is doing, and if you feel more inclusion is needed how to work toward the skills he needs to be successful?

[Linda on the move]

Originally Posted by laurata

Are these normal beginning of the year jitters?

Many parents are jittery at the beginning of the year, esp parents of kids who are starting K, or starting middle school, or starting high school. They are all really big transitions. I think that part of what you are feeling is just a normal part of parenting.

A kind of grief that my boy needs to be in a different kind of classroom?

For me, there is a sense of grief around issues like this. I have to process it and make my peace with it. I, too, have a smart child with autism who has problems with things like transitions, noise, and people. We've gone through periods where she is really not OK. Big time not OK.

In a few weeks as things settle in and you see how your son does, I bet that if he seems happy,then you will have peace. But until this has a chance to play out for him a bit, you will worry. How could you not worry?

[Lilypie32]

My son started full day autism prek when he was 3. Seeing my baby get on a school bus and go to school was heartbreaking for me. I cried and felt awful about it. In the end, it has done wonders!! I could not be more pleased with his development in a self-contained classroom. His school also combines sped and gen ed for recess, lunch, etc. He has done so well in school. He started kindergarten last week and is in an autism kindergarten, 2nd, and 3rd grade class. So far, so good. He has had problems adjusting this year but is slowly getting back into the groove.

I really want my child to be in a gen ed class but I don't think he could function well with just an aide either. I want him to be able to function in a mainstream class. I want him to succeed and thrive. He is going to be slowly starting mainstreaming with PE, music, and art this year though. So, we will see how that goes.

I hope you guys have a GREAT school year!!

[mekat]

My son is in a self contained classroom and we love it. He has moderate to severe developmental delays and significant physical handicaps & medical conditions. I don't want him mainstreamed at all even if it were an option because realistically my son would be miserable in a classroom where they are expected to be working at a desk a significant portion of the day. Having said that though if it weren't for the fact his school can feed his need for social and mental stimulation I would have flat out pulled him by now because he does not advance in school therapies at all. I have to pull him from school and take him to private therapies or he won't make progress; so I have mixed feeling about his school. I would probably have more mixed feelings about a self contained classroom if my son were more borderline like yours. I do know one thing autistic parents have to be careful with is how the staff handles meltdowns some autistic students have. I have heard some pretty shady techniques used for such situations but since our issue isn't autism I will leave it up to the autistic parents to educate you on that one.

[BookGoddess]

We're still in preschool here so I don't have personal experience, but I know one mom of a girl in elementary school who took her daughter (ASD and high functioning) out of the mainstream classroom and into a special ed classroom. Her daughter was passing her general ed classes, but she hated school because the homework was getting harder for her. Having the daughter in a special ed classroom worked out very well. Her reading and math skills took off. She was able to learn at a slower pace that was right for her and she mastered material rather than frantically trying to keep up with a general ed class that was moving too fast for her. Her special ed class also does a lot of fun things that kids in general ed don't have time for these days what with the No Child Left Behind Act demands on educators.

If you go this route, it's not as if you have to do it all through his school years. It's about doing what's right for him right now. Good luck.

[laurata]

Thank you all for your kind words and encouragement. I'm trying to trust that if this isn't the right placement, we will see that and it will work out.

[nextcommercial]

Not me, but my nephew is moderately-severely autistic. He was in a regular classroom for two years. He made one friend, that friend has down syndrome. The parents went to visit the self contained classroom on another campus, and were both happy and sad with it.

The boys were playing Pokemon cards (this was about 12 years ago) and there was one girl who was working with a teacher while the other teacher prepared work. But, as they sat and watched, they realized that Alex has never PLAYED with anybody since school started. These three boys were PLAYING and enjoying each other's company.

He stayed in a self contained classroom until high school. He had real friends. He learned the work, but not as well as they would have liked. They supplemented at home, but he had friends. Friends that went to his birthday party, friends who invited him, friends who made him laugh and be happy.

[aslyn]

My DD is in a self contained classroom, and she couldn't be happier. I absolutely love her sp'ed teacher. She has an ID, so spends most of her day in the self contained. On the social level its great for her because the kids in the general ed class are years above her on all levels, and she doesnt mesh well with them to make friends..but the self contained class she makes friends with everyone and 1 of her best friends is a young man who is non-verbal..but DD talks enough for both of them plus some! Academicly, she makes extremely sloooow progress. It takes her months of repetiton to learn something and for a teacher this can be very frustratng. In dd's case its the best place for her and any other teacher would have lost their minds trying to get her to learn to spell our last name.

[Fay]

My son had a wonderful experience in a self-contained Sp Ed classroom in first grade (he spent kindy in an autistic-impairment classroom). He received plenty of attention in the Sp Ed class, and halfway through the year, was partially mainstreamed into a gen ed 1st grade class. He was fully mainstreamed with an aide for second grade. The Sp Ed team worked closely together and was able to meet each child's unique needs. The class was also great for him socially. The team arranged each class with kids with similar functional levels (not necessarily similar academic skills), which meant that the kids were able to work together, help each other and enjoy each other as a group...I believe that this was the key to a successful classroom environment.

When my son was in a self-contained preschool class in a different school district, it was a nightmare because each child had completely different needs & functional levels. For example, one child was quadriplegic, another child had severely disturbed behaviors, another child was apraxic but had great social skills...and there were 12 kids in the class! We pulled DS1 out of that school, sold our house and moved to our current district with great services...the funny thing is, the two districts offer identical services on paper, but in practice they are worlds apart.

[NightOwlwithowlet]

One of my cousins had his son in a self contained class room. He has Down's Syndrome and PDD-NOS. I know it was bittersweet for them, especially his wife. She felt like she was in denial about his special needs when they placed him there as if somehow it made him more "disabled" to the rest of the world. She has always (as most of us do) seen him as much more capable than his therapist, doctors and teachers.

He was in a self contained classroom for pre K, in kindy and 1st grade he was mainstreamed with aide for recess, art and music. He was mainstreamed in 2nd through 6th grade with an aide. Last year, they moved to a new state when my cousin was transfered with the Navy. They decided to send him to junior high and high school at a school specifically for teenagers with Down's Syndrome. They felt the new school district wasn't meeting his needs.

We saw him over Labor day weekend and he LOVES his new school. He was thrilled with his teachers, friends, and feeling like a "regular guy". I know his mom is sad about it, she mentioned it felt like a step back like the self contained class room, but she knows he is happier. She did mention that he really thrived in a self contained class room in pre K and kindy.

[Lollybrat]

My son is in 1st grade and has high functioning autism. Last year he was in the K-2nd grade Autism classroom full time (half-day Kindy). This year he is in the Autism classroom most of the day with partial mainstreaming in the regular first grade classroom.

He has thrived in this placement. DS is academically advanced, but delayed in verbal language, social-emotional skills, and motor skills. Last year, there is no way my son would have been able to function in a typical Kindy classroom. Even after 3 years in the district's special needs preschool, my son was unable to take direction in group settings, could not work indepedently, could not interact with peers appropriately, and was to control his emotional responses. These are all things that he worked on intensely in the Autism classroom.

Last year, there were 8 students in his Autism classroom with one teacher, two aides (parapros), and most days a therapist. All of the students in his class were high-fucntioning and all had goals for partial or full mainstreaming. The children were taught one-on-one and in small groups. DS was the only Kindy student in the class, but because of his academic skills he did a lot of small group work with the 1st graders. All that prepared him for partial mainstreaming this year.

This year he is with the regular 1st grade class for Language Arts and Math (he is academically ahead in these subjects, so the goal here is really to get him used to being in class, participating, and staying on task), as well as specials, luch, and recess. He has an aide with him in the regular classroom and is doing very well there.

When DS was very young, I thought that having him in the preschool special needs program was OK, if it meant he would be mainstreamed in Kindy. When it became obvious that wasn't going to happen, I told myself that special ed Kindy would be OK, as long as he could fully mainstream in first. Now I've learned to let go of my own timetable for these things and just see where DS's skills and challenges take us. It's really quite a journey.

[laurata]

I just wanted to update that ds seems to be doing well, and his teacher reported last week that he was having fun and actually playing with one of the other students! Not sure exactly what playing entailed, but I am thrilled to hear he is interacting and seems happy. We have our IEP meeting tomorrow, so I am looking forward to talking to his teacher more.

He is, however, clearly stressed and over stimulated at the end of the day, so I am trying to make that transition feel smooth and predictable. Any tips?

[BookGoddess]

We give DD a nice bath right after school and that seems to really help her. She loves the water - ocean, bath tub, water play table, etc. I don't know where you are, but here it's incredibly humid and sunny most of the year, so after the bath, we close the drapes a bit and turn on the a/c for a while. Sometimes she eats a snack during that time. Sometimes she naps for a bit. She almost seems to look forward to it.

I'd be curious to hear what others say.

[Kristine233]

What a wonderful update! As far as the over stimulation I'd talk to the teacher about that. I think if he is overstimulated coming home that they can help you with that by slowing down and helping with the transition during the day. It could be overly stimulating at school too but he's able to keep it together better because of structure and rules. At least that's what we found. The teachers started making the end of the day a more mellow relaxing time and it helped with the transition. Otherwise, you could go from school structured to home structured and transition to relaxed after you've settled in. Keep a schedule like they do at school so when he comes home he knows what to expect and then transition from that.

As far as the self-contained classroom, we've done both. Mostly mainstream with pull-out spec ed but one year he had a really hard time so he was mostly in the spec ed room with a "home room" mainstream classroom. It has really varied year to year based on his needs. The year he was more in the full time spec ed was a transition year where the kids were expected to read more and were learning more skills, he just was not ready for that and was overwhelmed. So he started his days in mainstream, half hour in he'd go to the special ed room and then come back for math, lunch and specials (Music, Gym, recess) with the assistance of a para. The rest of the time was in a self included spec ed room. We really liked it because they were flexible with him and did encourage mainstream participation when appropriate. He made far more friends in that room and learned a lot of social skills (the social skills teacher worked closely with them). They also had basically a 1:1 student/teacher ratio and sometimes more than one teacher per child. Because of the skills and extra attention he got that year he was able to transition to more mainstream the next year with less spec ed pullout. He still has a para in the classroom but only attends spec ed for certain subjects now. The skills and experience were priceless though and really set the ground work for the years after.

[aslyn]

hmm, We don't really do anything when the kids get home..literally They come home clean out their backpacks and veg on the couch for a bit, eat dinner do homework and play then bed..We do bath/showers in the mornings which seems to wake the kids up more and get them refreshed for a new day. The first couple weeks are always hard though adjusting to a new schedule, more people etc.